Nigeria: Expatriate Workforce and Manpower Development in the Aviation Sector
Nigerian airlines expend huge resources on expatriate pilots and engineers, thus inducing massive capital flight. Martha Momoh cautions that its high time government creates the enabling environment for domestic carriers to develop indigenous manpower
Dearth of indigenous pilots has made it inevitable that Nigerian airlines must employ expatriates and this comes at a very high cost and it is even worrisome as Nigerian airlines are said to expend over N200 billion on wages for expatriate pilots and engineers, thereby increasing capital flight out of the country.
They put the approximate costs of maintaining these professional at about N200 billion annually on salaries, allowances for pilots and engineers.
To them, the influx of this group of professionals has a great consequence on indigenous pilots as they predicted that very soon, there be the difficulty of finding experienced indigenous pilots to operate aircraft.
The inability to graduate Nigerian pilots by the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria for close to ten years some years back did incalculable damage to the industry. Many of the ones trained by the defunct Nigeria Airways have retired, died or sought greener pastures offshore.
The carriers relied heavily on poaching at the expense of training until there were no more to be poached. They refused to train until recently when Arik and Bristow Helicopters took the challenge to expend over N500 million in the training of indigenous pilots and engineers.
The boom of foreign pilots and engineers, analysts said is as a result of government's poor aviation sector employment policy coupled with airline's lack of confidence in local pilots and engineers.
But Nigerian pilots and engineers have reputation for high performance as many of them like Captain Bob Hayes, Captain Dele Ore and many others distinguished themselves as first class captains.
Many of the airlines in Nigeria like Arik, Medview, Aero, Dana, IRS, Overland, Chanchangi have over 350 expatriates on their pay roll, while over 200 of Nigerian pilots are said to be roaming the streets, in spite the many years of experience. One of the unemployed pilots in Nigeria, who simply gave his name as Ozoye stated that there are over 200 jobless pilots, just as he urged the Federal Government to quickly come to their aid.
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